Every family has a soup person. In mine, it is me, and it started the winter my daughter brought home her third cold in a month and I found myself making chicken noodle soup twice in one week. The stovetop version was good, but it took forever: browning, simmering, waiting for the broth to develop … Read more
There is a particular smell that takes me straight back to my dad’s backyard. It is smoke and brown sugar and pork fat rendering low and slow, and for years I believed you needed a smoker, a whole Saturday, and a man with strong opinions about wood chips to get it. Then I had kids, … Read more
The first time I made chicken and dumplings, I did it the hard way. I stood over a pot on the stove for two hours, stirring and fretting, convinced the dumplings would turn into soggy lumps. They were fine, but I was exhausted, and my kitchen looked like a flour bomb had gone off. Years … Read more